getting settled

Hey everyone, thanks for checking in. Its really good to hear from you. Rachel and I are sitting in an internet cafe just a short walk from our place, waiting for a restaurant to open that serves bagels and philadelphia cream cheese. After two nights staying with Cyriac at JNU, we found a place in Vasant Vihar, a safe, quiet neighborhood inhabited by diplomats, retired engineers, etc. Its a tiny, tiny apartment, but we've cleaned it out and we're working on decorating it. We're learning to take bucket showers (with heated water), and either today or tomorrow we'll probably go shopping for a hotplate. We've spent the past couple days in the markets, negotiating and negotiating and buying things for the apartment. Its all very inexpensive, and so we're not going to have any difficulties eating well and living off of bottled water (7-12 rupees a bottle, 45 rupees to the dollar). It's easy being vegetarian here - probably easier than in New York. Most menus have plenty of veg dishes and most menus are split between 'Veg' and 'Non-Veg' sections. As Rachel pointed out, McDonalds has more veg dishes than meat. And they deliver. And they're cheap. We've resisted thus far.
Two of Cyriac's good friends, Anirudh and Arunita, live in the apartment just below ours. They are also students at the university. They're kind and cool and they've been helping us with all the silly questions (how much should we pay for this, is this safe to eat/drink - invaluable advice).
So long story short we're safe and well and having a great time. Hopefully we'll figure out how to get pictures onto a computer soon, though it may take a little while. But we will write more once we settle in and start visting all the sites.
Keep in touch, Danny
p.s. thanks, Ed, for the advice. its important. the other night our auto rickshaw passed through two long lines of fifteen or so cows. They really do just wander the streets. The traffic makes New York look tame and yet they're still out there, grazing on the side, or in the middle, of the road.